Plaza de Toros de Béjar
The Plaza de Toros in the old Castilian city of Béjar in the south of the province of Salamanca is the oldest stone bullring in Spain and thus also the first stone open-air sports facility in modern Europe.
history
In Spain there is a tradition of bullfighting (corrida) that goes back to the Middle Ages (and perhaps even ancient times ) . The events initially took place in closed-off inner-city squares (e.g. Plaza de Coso in Peñafiel ); later, larger arenas were also built using scaffolding and dismantled again after the respective events. For Béjar, such an event in honor of the Virgen del Castañar is known from 1667; another festival in honor of the future King Ludwig I.is handed down from the year 1711. In the same year the decision was made to build a permanent stone structure that no longer had to be erected and dismantled, and a site about 1 km south of the city was chosen. The arena was completed three years later.
architecture
You enter the stone arena, which is a maximum of 10 m high, through only four entrance gates, which are not always opened. The round fighting area has a diameter of approx. 41 m; the outer diameter of the entire structure is approximately 75 m. The audience tiers, which can hold around 3500 people and are made up of large limestone blocks on the surface , but also of quarry stone, were probably only later secured against the bulls breaking out with wooden palisades; the upper tiers were partially covered. The representative three-storey entrance building with entry counters on the ground floor and spectator balconies on the upper floors was not built until the second half of the 19th century.
statue
In honor and in memory of Julián Casas, known as El Salamanquino (1818–1882), one of the most famous bullfighters of the 19th century, a life-size bronze statue was placed in front of the arena entrance building in 2011.
Web links
- Plaza de Toros, Béjar - Photos + Info (Spanish)
- Plaza de Toros, Béjar - Photos + Info (Spanish)
Coordinates: 40 ° 22 ′ 43.6 " N , 5 ° 45 ′ 43" W.